We have been developing a method to generate covalent 1D and 2D polymers by an in-situ polymerization process directly on a noble metal surface.
Pioneering work:Nature Nanotechnology2, 687 (2007)
Hierarchical growth and surface templation:Nature Chemistry4, 215 (2012)
On-surface polymerization has been used to generate single molecular wires (see above) and characterize their conductance in-situ on the single molecule level.

Switch Arrays on Surfaces

We have been discovering the electric-field driven switching of azobenzenes on surfaces and exploited this phenomenon to create periodically ordered switch arrays (switching lattice).

We have been able to dynamically control the life-time of the charge-separated state in a tetrathiafulvalene-diarylethene-fullerene triad by light thereby providing a mechanism for (self)regulation in prototypical artificial photosynthetic systems.